léonie -
I must not be understanding what you mean.
Why is it expensive to be able to access my photos without the need of Photos? I haven't applied any adjustments and/or changed their metadata. Sure, I will have to delete the imported photos in Photos' Library, but I didn't want them imported into Photos to begin with. All I wanted was to have my photo files on my iPad transferred to my Mac, to manually move them into different external drives for backing up purposes. I don't understand why one gets sandboxed out of one's own files. I already learned about how both Photos app and Image Capture app work, yet it's not what I need. I also would go as far as to say that, probably most normal users don't want this intrusive type of software within one's one operating system.
I don't plan on ever using iCloud Photo Library, and I also don't intend to work with a referenced library. All I want is direct access to my photos. The same way I've been doing it on Windows and Linux for ages.
I don't care about ever using the Photos app, all I want is access to my photo files. I don't intend to ever use Photos app. I hate it.